The judicial court is the merger of the district courts and the courts of first instance. In effect, the existing tribunaux de grande instance and tribunaux d'instances located in the same municipality will become a single court, which will be the tribunal judiciaire. In general, its territorial jurisdiction corresponds to the department.

The judicial court has become the only court of common law of first instance in criminal, commercial and civil matters competent to settle disputes that have not been assigned to another court. This court takes over the competences of the courts of first instance and high court regardless of the amount of the dispute. It is sometimes possible that several judicial courts exist in the same department, in which case they may be specialized for complex cases with a large number of parties.